Federal judge blocks Texas app store age verification law from taking effect in the new year

A Texas federal judge temporarily blocked a new state law requiring adults and minors to verify their age before downloading apps or making in-app purchases Tuesday.

Senate Bill 2420, scheduled to take effect Jan. 1, passed almost unanimously in this year's legislative session. Also known as the App Store Accountability Act, the law would require adults to verify their age before downloading any app, and minors would need parental approval before downloading apps or making in-app purchases. Parents would have to prove their identity and give consent with each download.

Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, or SEAT, and two high school students under 18 sued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton — whose office would enforce the law — in October to stop it from taking effect. Plaintiffs argued the law would put content-based restrictions on speech, replacing parents' freedom to moderate their kids' internet access.

U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman of Austin sided with the plaintiffs in a preliminary injunction order Tuesday, finding that the law is likely unconstitutional. But Pitman also acknowledged the importance of efforts to curb children's use of devices, social media and games that can interfere with their real lives.

"These consequences are substantial, and the Court recognizes the broad support for protecting children when they use apps," Pitman wrote. "But the means to achieve that end must be consistent with the First Amendment."

Adam Sieff, one of the students' attorneys, said in a statement the law was Texas' latest attempt to censor the students and regulate their households, and he lauded Pitman for blocking it.

“App stores allow anyone with a smartphone and an internet connection to access the accumulated sum of virtually all recorded human knowledge and expression," Sieff said. "Banning students like SEAT’s members, M.F., and Z.B., from accessing these massive libraries without parental consent, just because the government thinks that’s what their parents ought to want, has never been a constitutionally permissible way to protect kids or support families.”

KERA News has reached out to the Office of the Attorney General and will update this story with any response.

In a similar ruling earlier this year, Pitman blocked parts of the SCOPE Act, which required social media platforms to make users register their age and restricted what minors could see on the sites. A bill that would have banned minors from using or creating social media accounts died in the Texas Legislature earlier this year.

Additional reporting by the Texas Newsroom's Lucio Vasquez.

Toluwani Osibamowo is KERA’s law and justice reporter. Got a tip? Email Toluwani at tosibamowo@kera.org.

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